England v Tonga Test Series 2023

[Wb1234]

1 week after the Grand Final, when there's been major flooding in the country in the last 72 hours, 13k is decent considering the circumstances.

Was the flooding only in rugby league areas or did soccer groinds suffer too

unfair comparison. there's a few more Polynesians in Auckland than St Helens.
Aus v Samoa didnt get much more for their match in Townsville.

If you played Eng v Aus, we'd probably get more buzz and similar crowds in England and/or Australia.

Id say the issue is more the crowds of the big 3 are rubbish. NZ were totally outnumbered this weekend, Ive never heard the Haka booed so much...and it was in Auckland! I agree with you...that Tonga v Sam in NZ would be massive. I also think Tonga v Samoa in Sydney would draw a bigger crowd than any Kangaroos match.

As previously mentioned, we need to work on the prestige of internationals in these countries to help make playing more internationals viable.

If England can’t get at least 20k they don’t deserve teams like samoa Tonga nz or Australia

the arlc wanted Tonga to play in the pacific cup

we’ve missed out on samoa vs tonga for a crowd of 12k

maybe they should’ve delayed the tonga series until after the pacific cup was over

 

[Perth Red]

It’s a terrible crowd

I’d Tonga were playing in the pacific cup their crowds would be 20 to 30k

pacific cup is averaging close to 20k for crowd the issue seems to be in England

It’s not terrible, it’s lower than we’d hope and should have been. Tonga just aren’t the same draw as nz and australia at moment but that first test should hopefully get fans excited and the two Yorkshire games should do better,

not it’s not. The 4 crowds have been 18k, 23k, 6k (est), 4k (est)
avg 12.75k.
lol, tonga v Samoa has never broken 20k

come back to us and talk crowds when australia can get three 40k plus crowds for a rugby league tournament!

 

[Wb1234]

It’s not terrible, it’s lower than we’d hope and should have been. Tonga just aren’t the same draw as nz and australia at moment but that first test should hopefully get fans excited and the two Yorkshire games should do better,

not it’s not. The 4 crowds have been 18k, 23k, 6k (est), 4k (est)
avg 12.75k.
lol, tonga v Samoa has never broken 20k

Should’ve been at Wigan

your estimates for png are funny

English league fans talk about how much they love internationals then don’t show up on their doorstep

 

[Wb1234]

It’s not terrible, it’s lower than we’d hope and should have been. Tonga just aren’t the same draw as nz and australia at moment but that first test should hopefully get fans excited and the two Yorkshire games should do better,

not it’s not. The 4 crowds have been 18k, 23k, 6k (est), 4k (est)
avg 12.75k.
lol, tonga v Samoa has never broken 20k

come back to us and talk crowds when australia can get three 40k plus crowds for a rugby league tournament!

Plans for Tonga to increase Test match involvement

The remarkable scenes at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night are set to be repeated next year with plans for Tonga to play Tests against New Zealand, Australia and the touring Great Britain Lions, as well as arch rivals Samoa.

www.nrl.com

Tonga vs samoa got a record crowd of 26k

talking bs as usual

 

[Perth Red]

Should’ve been at Wigan

your estimates for png are funny

English league fans talk about how much they love internationals then don’t show up on their doorstep

We’ve just had a cracking test match, the best so far this year, and you’re focused on the crowd being down a couple of thousand? Really?

 

[Wb1234]

We’ve just had a cracking test match, the best so far this year, and you’re focused on the crowd being down a couple of thousand? Really?

Sound like someone you know lol

 

[Perth Red]

Sound like someone you know lol

Deflection

 

[Wb1234]

Deflection

Venues should’ve been

1. London
2. Wigan as the only heartland game
3. Etihad Manchester or st James park Newcastle

at least hudds and Leeds have decent capacity which will see 20k which is par

 

[yakstorm]

Tonga vs samoa got a record crowd of 26k

Tonga v Samoa has never had a crowd as high as 26K. The crowds for the last 5 fixtures between the two island nations is:

2022 : Warrington - 12,674
2018 : Campbelltown - 17,802
2017 : Hamilton - 18,156
2016 : Parramatta - 15,225
2015 : Gold Coast - 12,336

Tonga's largest ever crowd is 30,003 which was against England at Mt Smart Stadium for the 2017 RLWC Semi Final. Samoa's largest ever crowd is 67,502 against Australia at Old Trafford in the UK.

For the England v Tonga match, it's not a surprising result. St Helens has never drawn great crowds for internationals in their new stadium (they may have better crowds at the venue before, I just haven't looked). For 'top games' they generally attract between 10K - 14K, so unsurprisingly yesterday's game fell exactly within that range.

For England, the markets they have historically drawn their best crowds for internationals are London, Manchester & Leeds. Newcastle is up there, though admittedly has only hosted one Test in recent years, so it's a bit of an unknown if they would repeat that. Next tier down is Huddersfield, Wigan, Liverpool and with Hull being right up there until around 2016 for some reason.

Yesterday's game would have been better suited at Headingley (which is selling better than St Helens was) to kick off the tournament (with St Helen's having either Game 2 or 3) or up the road at Wigan. Anyway, it's been played there now. On TV (which is what is the most important for the England v Tonga series), the ground looked mostly full and had a good atmosphere.

 

[Wb1234]

Tonga v Samoa has never had a crowd as high as 26K. The crowds for the last 5 fixtures between the two island nations is:

2022 : Warrington - 12,674
2018 : Campbelltown - 17,802
2017 : Hamilton - 18,156
2016 : Parramatta - 15,225
2015 : Gold Coast - 12,336

Tonga's largest ever crowd is 30,003 which was against England at Mt Smart Stadium for the 2017 RLWC Semi Final. Samoa's largest ever crowd is 67,502 against Australia at Old Trafford in the UK.

For the England v Tonga match, it's not a surprising result. St Helens has never drawn great crowds for internationals in their new stadium (they may have better crowds at the venue before, I just haven't looked). For 'top games' they generally attract between 10K - 14K, so unsurprisingly yesterday's game fell exactly within that range.

For England, the markets they have historically drawn their best crowds for internationals are London, Manchester & Leeds. Newcastle is up there, though admittedly has only hosted one Test in recent years, so it's a bit of an unknown if they would repeat that. Next tier down is Huddersfield, Wigan, Liverpool and with Hull being right up there until around 2016 for some reason.

Yesterday's game would have been better suited at Headingley (which is selling better than St Helens was) to kick off the tournament (with St Helen's having either Game 2 or 3) or up the road at Wigan. Anyway, it's been played there now. On TV (which is what is the most important for the England v Tonga series), the ground looked mostly full and had a good atmosphere.

It was tonga vs nz that for 26k my mistake

Samoa vs nz just got 23k

both had hardly any kiwis

a game in Auckland with those two involved is what In talking about

 

[taste2taste]

Tonga v Samoa has never had a crowd as high as 26K. The crowds for the last 5 fixtures between the two island nations is:

2022 : Warrington - 12,674
2018 : Campbelltown - 17,802
2017 : Hamilton - 18,156
2016 : Parramatta - 15,225
2015 : Gold Coast - 12,336

Tonga's largest ever crowd is 30,003 which was against England at Mt Smart Stadium for the 2017 RLWC Semi Final. Samoa's largest ever crowd is 67,502 against Australia at Old Trafford in the UK.

For the England v Tonga match, it's not a surprising result. St Helens has never drawn great crowds for internationals in their new stadium (they may have better crowds at the venue before, I just haven't looked). For 'top games' they generally attract between 10K - 14K, so unsurprisingly yesterday's game fell exactly within that range.

For England, the markets they have historically drawn their best crowds for internationals are London, Manchester & Leeds. Newcastle is up there, though admittedly has only hosted one Test in recent years, so it's a bit of an unknown if they would repeat that. Next tier down is Huddersfield, Wigan, Liverpool and with Hull being right up there until around 2016 for some reason.

Yesterday's game would have been better suited at Headingley (which is selling better than St Helens was) to kick off the tournament (with St Helen's having either Game 2 or 3) or up the road at Wigan. Anyway, it's been played there now. On TV (which is what is the most important for the England v Tonga series), the ground looked mostly full and had a good atmosphere.

Unrelated question and hopefully not too tricky, have you got any data on when Super League ( or what ever it was called prior to Super League ) had its best average attendances over the course of the season?

I'm trying to find out when England's domestic 'glory days' were and what size crowds they got ?

 

[Wb1234]

Unrelated question and hopefully not too tricky, have you got any data on when Super League ( or what ever it was called prior to Super League ) had its best average attendances over the course of the season?

I'm trying to find out when England's domestic 'glory days' were and what size crowds they got ?

Super league is the glory days

they came close to 10k average

before super league crowds in winter rugby were under half

there was a boom in crowds after ww2 with huge crowds which didn’t last

 

[Perth Red]

Venues should’ve been

1. London
2. Wigan as the only heartland game
3. Etihad Manchester or st James park Newcastle

at least hudds and Leeds have decent capacity which will see 20k which is par

Dreaming. We couldn’t get 15k to Rl heartland, you think it’d have got more in a massive stadium 400 kms away?

big stadiums dont mean big crowds. At the moment there isn’t the hype of playing tonga you get from australia or nz. Most uk fans probably would struggle to name 5 tongan players.
They are seen as a secondary side.
these are First steps to what should hopefully be just the start of building the reputation of these other nations in uk.

 

[Perth Red]

It was tonga vs nz that for 26k my mistake

Samoa vs nz just got 23k

both had hardly any kiwis

a game in Auckland with those two involved is what In talking about

Your allowed to be wrong, you should be used to it lol

enjoy the fact that for the first time EVER we are seeing a full test series against someone other than nz and australia. You should be celebrating a momentous occasion not stressing about how many northern folk are turning up.

now 4k at a game in Port Moresby that’s a worry,

 

[Perth Red]

Unrelated question and hopefully not too tricky, have you got any data on when Super League ( or what ever it was called prior to Super League ) had its best average attendances over the course of the season?

I'm trying to find out when England's domestic 'glory days' were and what size crowds they got ?

Records don’t go back that far but I’ve seen pics from the 20’s and even 60’s of packed out grounds. Of course the grounds may have just been smaller back then?

 

[Wb1234]

Your allowed to be wrong, you should be used to it lol

enjoy the fact that for the first time EVER we are seeing a full test series against someone other than nz and australia. You should be celebrating a momentous occasion not stressing about how many northern folk are turning up.

now 4k at a game in Port Moresby that’s a worry,

After a poor origin I was looking forward to samoa vs Tonga

similarly instead of bagging png crowds why not enjoy the same thing …8k for cooks bs fiji is brilliant

 

[Perth Red]

Unrelated question and hopefully not too tricky, have you got any data on when Super League ( or what ever it was called prior to Super League ) had its best average attendances over the course of the season?

I'm trying to find out when England's domestic 'glory days' were and what size crowds they got ?

There has been 5 seasons where SL crowd avg has been over 9k, including the 2023 season. I believe 2012 may have been the biggest with 10.1k avg.

 

[Wb1234]

 

[Perth Red]

After a poor origin I was looking forward to samoa vs Tonga

similarly instead of bagging png crowds why not enjoy the same thing …8k for cooks bs fiji is brilliant

8k ? Please. it’s only 12k Stadium.
One end stand was totally empty. Other end was about a third full, main stand facing cameras was barely half full. Couldn’t see the other stand.
If there was 8k there I’m a kumul lol

 

[Wb1234]

8k ? Please. it’s only 12k Stadium.
One end stand was totally empty. Other end was about a third full, main stand facing cameras was barely half full. Couldn’t see the other stand.
If there was 8k there I’m a kumul lol

To be fair that’s the kind of nations England should be playing in tests for competitive games